After this coronavirus lockdown, are you feeling scared? Are you afraid of going out and mingling with people or shopping, thinking you might catch the virus? Are you anxious and fearful of the world around you? If you are not affected, then you have done well. But there are many people who think differently about the world around them. It is because your thinking and perceptions are affected and therefore your mental health.
There are several types of thinking involved. We have emotional thinking, philosophical thinking, scientific thinking, bureaucratic thinking, political thinking, intuitive thinking, rational thinking, illusions, etc.
Each type of thinking can take an individual in different directions and draw different conclusions. But if you are interested in improving your mental health, rational thinking is the way to clear up the confusion and chaos in your mind. Rational thinking takes into account all other types of thinking.
First, let’s consider emotional thinking. Here you are doing what your heart says. There is no rhyme or reason involved. You will not be open to any sensible argument or suggestion. If you go this way, prepare for headaches and tears.
Then there is philosophical thinking. Here you are involved in trying to find the reason for your existence in this world and how you can organize and live your life according to some principles set out for you to follow. It can be a way to create a deception.
In scientific thinking, we are concerned with understanding the nature of things and our physical world and how the forces of nature affect us physically and mentally. There are many people who claim to be scientists, but are in fact pseudoscientific. They hide behind science and use science as an exercise to stimulate the ego. Therefore, any scientist who ignores the mental side of his being is likely to have little understanding of his mind. When you have little or no knowledge of yourself, you can quickly become a bureaucrat. We see this in evidence around the world.
Of course, the most powerful and influential thinking is legal thinking, which is bureaucratic thinking. It has a powerful conditioning effect on the individual. Since we need the rule of law to run any society, we formulate rules and regulations for ourselves to avoid chaos. Therefore, where there is a traffic junction, for example, we place a STOP sign. Where we see any danger on the road, we put a speed limit sign. All of this is to help us use our common sense. So if one is at a traffic junction, one must look left and right before entering. Also, if there is a speed limit of 100 km per hour, it does not mean that one has to drive at 100 km per hour. You have to take into account the road conditions at whatever speed you can drive. Once again, one can see that we have to use our common sense in everything we do.
However, this legal thinking has a major drawback. That is, when we apply the law in any situation, only the letter of the law is followed. There are no considerations for the use of moral, common sense or ethical principles. It is simplistic thinking that limits one’s intelligence. Therefore, when we come to a STOP sign, it literally means complete stop even if there is no traffic. The vehicle must not be in motion, and if you drive slightly over the speed limit of 100 km per hour, the sign means that you are breaking the law. You will be penalized. We call this bureaucratic thinking.
The reason for this kind of bureaucratic thinking in law where only the letter of the law applies and not the spirit is to avoid any argument or confusion. Protects the people who administer the code from prosecution. All they have to do is stick to the letter of the law, and no one will blame them if something goes wrong. It also induces authoritarian behavior and bullying in some people because they feel empowered to enforce the law. So does it mean that if you stick to the letter of the law, you can’t go wrong?
Let’s see what the coronavirus crisis did to the medical profession. Once upon a time there was a direct doctor-patient relationship. The need for euthanasia laws, for example, did not arise because the doctor did what was clinically best for the patient. Now that consumerism and litigation laws prevail, medical thinking has changed. Doctors have become bureaucratic thinkers. They are conditioned to think that they have to save lives no matter the cost, even if they see a patient in pain starving to death with a terminal illness.
So when the coronavirus hit the scene, it scared doctors by the way it spread and caused deaths. They feared that hospitals and health systems could not cope with the resources they had. So they advised governments to lock down. Governments were also scared. Faced with the choice between saving human lives and damaging the economy, they saw no alternative but to stay locked up. It would have been political suicide if they didn’t act. Do you think it was a rational decision? Remember, the damage to the economy will have far greater consequences for society than all the lives saved by Covid-19. There will be long-term consequences for physical and mental health in terms of poverty, crime, violence, and suicide.
With the blockade came more rules and regulations. Bureaucratic controls are applied and companies close. People are unemployed. The media receives a field day reporting on the progress of the virus. Every day, 24 hours a day, on radio, television and in the newspapers you can only hear about the virus. Now it seems that everyone is scared. Covid-19 has become the bogeyman of the 21st century. Unwilling to admit its overreaction, the medical profession continues to justify its action by implying that this virus is different from the influenza virus. All his research seems to be aimed at validating his bureaucratic thinking. Many people who died from other causes but tested positive for coronavirus are included in its statistics.
Scared politicians also justify their actions using the virus as a bogeyman. Now they have found a way to control the population. The bureaucrats, who have trashed the economy, are proud to point out how successful they have been in protecting it. They are already taking credit for starting to rebuild the economy. Yes, you can never beat the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, he is warned that if he doesn’t follow his instructions, the bogeyman will catch him.
So let’s look at this bogeyman. It is the Covid-19 virus infection. There is no known cure for any virus infection. Like the influenza virus, it kills people. All virus infections tend to spread, so it is to be expected that this virus will spread. All the measures we have taken only slow down the virus. They do not eliminate or kill the virus. Like any virus, this Covid-19 will affect people with a weak immune system. The elderly and people with comorbidities are more affected than the young. When we return to normality in socialization, this flattened infection curve is sure to increase. Like the influenza virus, it will come and go.
Does it mean then that the country has to lock in again when the infection curve increases? If someone finds positive for Covid-19 in a workplace, does that mean we have to shut down the whole place? If a child is found to be Covid-19 positive in a classroom, do we close the entire school? If someone who feels perfectly healthy and who has a Covid-19 app on their mobile receives a message that they were close to a Covid-19 positive person. You are advised to get tested for the virus. What should he do? Aren’t we going to create anxiety in that person until the test is over? Isn’t this like asking a person to point to themselves with a bone? Is this the way forward to improve the mental health of society? Is this the way of the future?
Surely we have to accept the fact that we have to take risks all the time in our daily life. When we cross the street, we run a risk. When we drive, we run a risk. Also, when we travel by bus or plane, we run a risk. So why have we turned this coronavirus into a bogeyman? Since the medical profession is the guardian of people’s physical and mental health, shouldn’t it be involved in protecting us from this bogeyman rather than joining the politicians to promote one?
Fear is man’s worst enemy. It creates negative feelings and therefore leads to adverse actions. We have to face it, not embrace it. The medical profession should educate the public about the virus, not help create a bogeyman who looks under the bed. Also, does the media have no responsibility in all this?
There will be more viruses infecting society in the future. Are we going to be locked up every time? Remember, a frightened mind is a mind that suffers from a perceptual disorder. How can you expect me to think rationally?
